The paradigm of simple vulnerability: A critical appraisal of UNHCR policy regarding sexual violence and its implementation

Abstract

This dissertation addresses sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in refugee contexts, particularly the treatment of this issue by the international refugee regime complex, specifically the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and implementing Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from the mid 1990's to the mid 2010's. The objective is to analyse how power and dominance are exerted by these organisations over each other and over refugees. Therefore, I use the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine foundational documents from the UNHCR regarding its SGBV policies and NGO documents detailing programmes in the cases of Kenya and Tanzania. I discover that the UNHCR has used its power over refugees in order to maintain its dominance in the international system through establishing the paradigm of vulnerability, which understands refugee women exclusively as victims of individual acts of violence and addresses this issue through paternalistic and reactionary policies. The UNHCR uses this paradigm to maintain its expert status above other organisations and above the refugees themselves, creating policies that are inflexible in local contexts and that do not tackle systemic and structural violence. On the other hand, implementing NGOs play a mediating role between...